Baisakhi is the Indian harvest festival celebrated by Sikhs. This is celebrated especially in the region of Punjab where the Sikh community lives in abundance and this comes in the first day of the month of Vaisakh and for this reason it is also called as Vaisakhi. According to the English months, this occurs on 13^th or 14^th April. Baisakhi is celebrated in different names in different parts of India, in Assam it is called as Rongali Bihu, in Bengal it is Naba Barsha and in Kerala it is Pooram Visha and in Tamil Nadu it is called as Tamil Puthaandu.

Though many communities celebrate this festival, Sikhs give undue importance to this. They get up early on the day of the festival and take bath in the holy river. Then they would visit the Gurudwara and a special mass prayer along with a meeting will be conducted on that day. A community lunch is served and after that procession will start in which all men, women and children take part. This will be a colorful moment that will make everyone joyous.

Since agriculture is the main occupation of the people of India, the harvesting season is welcomed with great joy. Therefore this harvesting festival Baisakhi is celebrated with much importance. However it has its own religious significance too. The reason why Sikhs give more importance to this festival is that Khalsa was performed on the very same day. It was an event conducted by the Guru Gobind Singh, the tenth Sikh guru in 1699.

On that day, Guru Gobind Singh called a man to get inside the tent for sacrifice and he showed a sword tainted with blood to the people standing outside and made them believe that he had killed that man. Then again he called one more person and did the same thing. Finally after picking up five such brave men, he revealed the masses standing outside that none of them were killed but he showed the sword with the blood of the dead animal just to test their bravery and courage conferred on all of them the title of Singh. It was on the same day of the same year that the tradition of Gurus came to an end. Their holy book, Guru Granth Sahib was declared as their permanent and eternal Guru.

Baisakhi is celebrated by Hindus as New Year. They take bath and conduct parties and go to temple for worship. According to the Hindu mythology, the Goddess Ganga came to this world on that day and so many people think that taking bath in the holy River Ganges will bring them goodness.

The people of Kerala celebrate this festival by wearing new clothes and enjoying with firecrackers. They display Vishu Kani which is a decoration of auspicious things such as flowers, fruits and grains and they believe that this will bring prosperity throughout the year.

It is an important festival for Buddhists also because it is believed that Gautam Buddha has attained Nirvana in Gaya under the Bodhi tree on that day. It is celebrated as Sinhalese New Year in Sri Lanka, Maha Vishuva Sankranti or Pana Sankranti in Orissa, Pohela Boisakh in Bengal and Bikhu in Uttarkhand.

Article Posted By : Sumazla  On January 23, 2012lView All Articles

Suhaina Mazhar is a freelance content writer and blogger and has written thousands of original articles. http://sumazla.blogspot.com is her blog.

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Keywords :
Baisakhi , Vaisakhi , harvest festival